Cook Street

My little brother Craig is currently enrolled in Cook Street, a culinary school in Denver, CO. Here is a slideshow of some of his class' creations -- I want to try some!  Although I don't know about the frog legs... I can't wait to see him so he can cook me up something good! 

I'm very proud of Craig, and glad that he's found something that he loves doing. Check this out!

Cook Street 180 October Class

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: students cooking)

Wet Paint

One of the first things that Mark and I wanted to change about our house was the entryway. But of course, many other projects took priority.  More than two years after closing on our house, we finally bit the bullet and had the stale, nail hole-ridden space freshened up.  Here's Mark and Buddy posing for the before shot...

After many conversations about whether or not we could paint the high walls and ceilings ourselves, we finally opted to hire someone to come and do the job. Although it cost a little more than we were hoping, it was worth the money to have someone else who knew what they were doing come in and do the dirty work!  I had visions of falling paint cans and broken legs, and of course lots and lots of cursing... The idea of painting another high wall/ceiling area also brought back very bad memories of Mark and I painting the sunroom.  'Twas a bad, bad experience.

I found Trailboss Solutions on Craig's List and was instantly impressed with their work based on their online portfolio.  Although this was a small job for them, all the folks at Trailboss were very friendly and professional throughout the whole process.  Here's a shout-out to Scott, Lee and Peter -- thanks guys!  I know for a fact that if we ever need other projects done around the house that we can't do (or don't want to), we'll call Trailboss.  Oh, and hey, one of their beautiful kitchen remodels was recently featured in Alaska Home Magazine. 

In progress... 

Naturally, as the paint was going up I got a little nervous about the color I chose.  After living for two years with the stark white that it was, the warm yellow color was a bit of a shock when I first saw it going up on all the walls.  Now that I've had some time to sit with it, I love it. It definitely has a more yellow tone than I was originally expecting, but it goes well with the rest of the colors in our house. 

We got our new chandelier at Brown's Electric.  It's perfect for the space.  Mark couldn't have picked a better light -- good job, babe!

And (drum roll, please) the final product... Ahhhh.  Home sweet home. 

Jan. 3, 2009 - Alaska's 50th Birthday!

Alaska became the 50th state of the United States 50 years ago today. Happy birthday, Alaska! 

Today, Mark and I headed south and took a drive along Turnagain Arm. Our destination? Beluga Point -- only a 20 minute-ish drive south of Anchorage. We almost turned around after seeing a huge fog bank hugging the Chugach Mountains on the south end of town, but we drove through it and the sun was shining along the Arm. The fog made for some beautiful pictures!

The Seward Highway runs 126 miles from Anchorage to Seward, and is considered a National Scenic Byway because of its amazing views. There's also a stretch of the highway between Anchorage and Girdwood that's considered one of the most avalanche-prone stretches of highway in the world. There are a number of avalanche guns situated at various spots along the highway, and oftentimes the highway will be closed to shoot down any snow patches that look threatening. Avalanches have killed many people, and have been known to close the Seward Highway for days -- not very pleasant for the folks who live south of Anchorage and commute to work in town! 

We were surprised to see a handful of Dall Sheep when we arrived at Beluga Point. There were two hanging out right next to the highway; the others were farther up the hill. 

s'cold

It's been in the negative temps for at least a week now, but we can't complain too much because we've been enjoying the clear, sunny days that accompany the frigid digits.  I heard the weatherman say that our HIGH today is -3*.  It's a good thing Mark got me a long down jacket for Christmas -- I've been putting it to very good use already!

We've been enjoying the clear mountain views from the back of our house.  I noticed that a few ravens were perched in the trees behind our house this afternoon, so I snapped a few pictures of them hanging out (maybe it's warmer way up there?). 

We recently got a new camera (Panasonic DMC-FZ28), so it's been fun playing with the settings and testing out my photography skills.  All of the settings make me realize that I really need to take a class to fully take advantage of the new camera. But it's very beginner-friendly -- I'm able to take good pictures without knowing much about the ins and outs of photography. 

long time, no post

our last post was in september. how sad! i've made it one of my new year's resolutions to update our blog more frequently. mark and i had a great christmas! although we were originally planning to spend christmas in washington, we ended up spending the holidays at home. but after hearing about all the hullabaloo with snow and delayed flights, i'm glad we were home away from the chaos! 

we spent a couple of days with my parents in my hometown of

eagle river. we were lucky enough to spend christmas with the walkers (stephanie, michael and katelin), our good family friends. steve was stuck working on the slope, so the walker family will have a delayed christmas celebration with the whole family later this week. every year, the walker/dobson/hamlin clan does a gag gift exchange, which is always entertaining! steve drew me this year... i got a hannah montana make-up set. lucky me! ;) 

we got a nintendo ds from mark's family, so we'v

e had a lot of fun playing with that. we now have a cooking game, brain game (sudoku included), mario kart and yoga! the nintendo ds is like a new version of gameboy, which craig and i used to have when we were younger.  fun, fun!!  here's a pic of mark trying to figure it out, with our feline helpers, of course!

my brother, craig, got us a great cookbook called amuse-bouche.  he's in culinary school at cook street in denver right now... maybe he thinks i can actually cook things that are in this book (???)  amuse bouche means single, bite-sized hors d'oeuvre.  i told him that it's a bit over my head, but we will see. it's always fun to try new taste treats!

Babies

I went to Washington a few weeks ago to visit family and friends.  My best friend, Lisa, is about to pop, so I wanted to see her pregnant.  She had a baby shower on August 30, so I flew down to surprise her for that.  It was so much fun, and I totally got her good!  Mark and I will be traveling down south again in mid-October to attend Mark's cousin Lisa's wedding, and to hopefully welcome Ashlynn Jones into the world!  I'm so excited!

It's coming...

Winter, that is.  Mark and I got up early to go to the gym this morning, and there was LOTS of frost on the windshield.  Yesterday, the begonias on our front porch were still happy and perky, but the frost killed them overnight.  

We're bracing for the cold.  We put away the patio furniture and chiminea this past weekend.  The garage has been cleaned of all things camping to make room for the ice scrapers, snow tires and engine block heater extension cords.  I'm shivering already!!